This naturally raises the question of why one should strive so hard to achieve success, if it does not translate into prestige.
Statements like this honestly confuse me, do people spend years getting degrees so that others can be in awe of their intelligence, or is it because they want to work in that field and make significant income from it?
Why do you work (assuming you do), do you work to get paid, or do you work so that your boss can pat you on the back and praise you for being a hard worker
Prestige doesn't matter, what matters is what you gain of objective worth from your efforts
This is why I say never aim to be proud, aim to be physical satisfied, anybody can be proud of anything, but physical satisfaction is literal and can be measured
If were both on empty stomachs and I eat two sandwiches and you eat a single slice of bread, you aren't going to be as full as I am
If I just got a promotion to be CEO of a company and you just finished create some model plane assembly as part of your hobby (one you've been working on for years) we could both be equally as proud of what we just accomplished
Pride is subjective, like happiness and many other things, and
THEY ARE NOT DEPENDABLE CRITERIA FOR ASSESSING WHETHER OR NOT YOU ARE MAKING LOGICAL (BENEFICIAL) DECISIONS
If being a NEET and dedicating your life to the pursuit of knowledge for its own sake is "mental masturbation" as @BlkPillPres says of @Emba, then this disassociation between success and reputation must therefore be "material masturbation."
No, because were not acquiring "material things"
FOR THE SAKE OF ACQUIRING MATERIAL THINGS
Please read over what you said, I called it mental masturbation because there is no end goal, its just knowledge for the sake of knowledge so you can feel proud of yourself (see how this pride thing comes full circle, pride is for idiots who want to cope)
I want to acquire wealth so that
I CAN ACTUALLY IMPROVE MY LIFE (its not just all in my head, there is an end goal)
Less work, more leisure time, access to better foods, a healthier lifestyle (if possible I'd like a home gym), access to sex, etc
To compare these two positions as if they are the same is ridiculous, one has objective worth, the other doesn't
As many users have pointed out on this forum, work is merely a means to an end, and that end is usually providing for other people -- the tribe, the family, the wife. To make that end into your own gratification, on the other hand, is to make life into a sort of MMORPG where "leveling up" for its own sake becomes one's main motivation
Alright dude, I'm going to beg you not to be a retard, because this is some serious mental gymnastics, you might as well say men are worthless unless they are providing for others and fuck men, we don't get to have any enjoyment, everything we do should be for other peoples sake, I'd half think you are actually a woman larping at this point, because what you're saying here makes no sense
Its nothing but a false dichotomy of - "Work for the sake of others and sacrifice your own wants
ELSE you aren't doing it the right way, working is only for helping other people"
Lastly, I've never seen
ANY USER say the retarded shit you just said,
NOT ONE, so I don't know where you got the "many users" that pointed it out, work is a means to an end, but there is no implication to the act of work itself, that the end is always other people and never yourself
acquiring success for its own sake is still egotistical, but in Freudian terms, an ego that's been counterbalanced by the superego
100% false, you are just stacking false dichotomy upon false dichotomy, now its - "Trying to be comfortable and have more for yourself is egotistical be default"
Ok so pretty much every insect, plant, microbe, etc is egotistical, because as a biological creature having more resources for yourself is pretty much a universal pursuit, at that point
YOU'VE RENDERED THE CONCEPT OF EGOISM MEANINGLESS AS THE DEFAULT PURSUIT OF MOST ALL ORGANISMS IS NOW EGOTISTICAL
If everybody and everything is an egoist, then nobody is an egoist, you've rendered the term useless, terms have meaning because they distinguish things against others
Its like saying every person who hasn't had sex in 24 hours is incel, something that even happens to Chad's and Staceys, and most people period, rendering the term incel meaningless